In the Direct Primary Care model, no insurance is billed for your primary care. For an affordable monthly membership fee, all of your primary care needs are covered and you have direct access to your own physician. By not billing insurance, our office is able to significantly decrease administrative costs, and most importantly, to make sure that decisions about your health are made by you and your doctor, not the insurance company.

In the Direct Primary Care model, insurance is used for what insurance is intended to be used for–rare, potentially financially catastrophic events. Imagine how expensive your auto insurance would be if it also had to cover gas, oil changes, and routine maintenance. This is what has happened to traditional medical insurance. As medical insurance has expanded to include routine health needs, its cost has increased dramatically. The use of insurance in a primary care setting also means that many primary care practices need to spend about $40 out of every $100 just to pay for the administrative costs of billing insurance. Practices have responded to this by trying to see more and more patients per day and billing higher and higher charges for each visit, just in order to break even. Direct Primary Care is an idea that is genius in its simplicity–eliminate the insurance middleman, and we can bring cost down significantly, while providing better service and quality. You can still use your insurance to pay for labs, imaging, specialist referrals, surgeries, hospitalizations, or other services as needed, which can be obtained at any local health system–the choice is yours to make with your doctor.

If you have urgent questions, day or night, your phone call will be answered or returned promptly by your own physician. For prescription refills or non-urgent questions, you may also communicate with your physician through your secure electronic medical record. How is it possible for your doctor to be “on call” all the time? Many primary care physicians in traditional insurance practice  have 2500-3500 patients in their care (this is necessary to generate enough income to support most practices, given the enormous amount of overhead that goes to billing and documenting for insurance), and you can imagine that it would be quite difficult to provide this level of service for that many patients. In Direct Primary Care practices, since the overhead is so much lower, physicians are able to care for a smaller group of patients, allowing us to provide a higher level of service and improved quality of care.

For medical conditions that can be safely managed over the phone, your own physician will promptly return your call or portal message, talk with you, and make treatment recommendations without you needing to take time away from work or home to come in to clinic.

The monthly fee covers in-office and phone visits as well as coordination with any needed specialist care. It also gives you access to Live Well DPC’s negotiated lab pricing, which can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year on needed testing. You may end your participation in Live Well DPC at any time with a 30 day written notice. Your monthly fee will be securely withdrawn through a checking account or credit card.  Say goodbye to confusing bills and not knowing costs ahead of time, and say hello to affordable, transparent pricing for your primary care!